White Hot
by generalnothingness
Summary: I remember everything. I remember the mindnumbing, whitehot, searing pain. Eventual GS, SaraSofia friendship. Shocking I know…


**Title:** White Hot

**Rating:** T for language and violence

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing to do with CSI except for the first four seasons on DVD, the computer game, the board game, and a big fat crush on Archie. I also don't own the Simple Plan song "Untitled."

**Spoilers:** Everything I think. There are some prominent episodes but I don't know which ones.

**Summary:** I remember everything. I remember the mind-numbing, white-hot, searing pain. Eventual G/S, Sara/Sofia friendship. Shocking I know…

**A/N:** After reading several stories on Sara get shot or stabbed or hurt in some way I decided to write my own. I hope I do the subject justice. I have never been shot so I have no idea what it feels like; this was a huge honkin' guess on it.

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"**And I can't stand the pain  
And I can't make it go away  
No I can't stand the pain"  
-Simple Plan "Untitled"**

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_They say that you don't remember the really horrible things that happen to you. Something happens in your brain, a chemical is released, don't ask me which one, any other time and any other place I'd be happy to tell you which one, but right now, I'm not in any position to remember. Anyway, supposedly this chemical is released and your brain just shuts down for a second. I believe that's true because I don't remember what happened the night my father died. Oh, I know what happened, I've heard it enough times, and I know I saw what happened, I just don't remember details. Smell and sounds, like I told Grissom, but not until after the whole thing was over. And in high school, my friends and I were coming home when a drunk driver t-boned us. I don't remember anything about the crash. All I remember is waking up in the hospital 24 hours later. _

_So, yeah, maybe our brain tries to protect us from horrifying moments, painful moments. But my brain sure did a crappy job of protecting me today, because I sure as hell remember everything that has happened in the past day and a half. The sounds of people yelling, the acrid smell of gun powder and the copper smell of blood, and the pain. The mind-numbing, white-hot, searing pain that ripped through my shoulder when the bullet hit me. I felt everything, from the tearing of my flesh to the splitting of the muscle to the shattering of my bone, and then everything repeated again as the bullet exited from my body. I remember falling to the ground, and thinking that my elbows were going to be bruised from the impact. Silly, mundane thoughts like that flow through your head in horrifying times I think. _

_I remember police officers rushing around trying to find the shooter and Sofia shouting orders before running over to assess my damage. She dropped to her knees next to me, looked at my wound and then looked at me. I could tell that it was bad by the look in her eyes, but she said nothing, she just took of her jacket and pressed it to my shoulder. Fire soared through my body at the contact, the pain almost making me black out. She assured me that I was going to be okay and that an ambulance was already on the way and other mundane things like that. I think that she thought that by talking to me that that would keep my mind off the pain radiating from my left shoulder. _

_One of the officers that had been running around after the bullets started flying came up behind Sofia and told her that they had found the shooter and had taken him into custody. The officer asked if I had heard that and I gave a weak, yet grumpy retort. I could feel my energy leaving my body and I knew it wouldn't be long until I lost consciousness. I felt the blood pooling beneath my body, staining the back of my shirt and the ground beneath me simultaneously. All this time Sofia had been talking to me, telling me to hold on, that help would be there soon, and other things, that hard as I try to remember I can't. I had lost so much blood at that point, I was surprised I wasn't dead yet. I knew that I was heading into the darkness and I wanted her to tell everyone at the lab some things for me. She refused. That's the last thing I actually remember before losing consciousness, her telling me that I would get to tell them myself. Then it was flashing lights and the shouts of paramedics and the moving of the gurney and finally the closing of the ambulance door. Those of the last of my memories of the night. Those are the last things I remember, no matter how fuzzy they were. The point is I remember._

* * *

Sara sipped from her cup of coffee as she waited for Grissom to hand out assignments with everyone else. It was Warricks day off, and since he had gotten married, he had yet to come in on his day off. Catherine, Greg, and Sara sat around the table, watching Grissom as he flipped through assignment sheets. Nick leaned up against the counter, nursing a steaming cup of coffee, watching along with the rest. 

"Catherine, Greg, Nick you three have a B&E at the Shoe Emporium on Tropicana. No witnesses. Vartan is already waiting for you. Sara, you and I have DB at The Starlight Garden Motel. Sofia will meet us there, however you're gonna have to head over there first. Ecklie has called a meeting and I was told if I didn't attend this one, something terrible would happen."

He said this last sentence with a hint of contempt in his voice before he quickly turned around and strode out of the room, heading for the locker room to grab his kit. Slowly, Catherine, Greg, and Nick followed him out, and Sara was left sitting by herself, her coffee now lukewarm. She sighed loudly, wondering the complexities of Gil Grissom, before finally standing up and taking the same route of her coworkers.

* * *

The drive to The Starlight Garden Motel was relatively short, and yet Sara felt it was much too long. The faster she got this case over with, the faster she could go home. It was such a change from several years ago. She use to immerse herself in work and never went home. Now, home was her sanctuary, her way to get away, away from the grit of the job and away from the heartache she lovingly called Grissom. 

As she pulled up to the scene, her mind quickly shifted into investigative mode and all thoughts of Grissom fled. She stepped out of her vehicle and walked toward Sofia. Sara and Sofia hadn't worked together much since her transfer to the night shift and even less when Sofia decided to become detective. Sara was the first to admit, albeit only to herself, that she was jealous of Sofia's closeness to Grissom. Sara had known him for ten years and was barely acknowledged and Sofia had been working with him less than a year and he had been copying her methods of evidence collection.

"Hey, where's Grissom?" Sofia called out to the approaching CSI. Sara kept her jealousy below the surface and contained herself before looking up at the detective.

"Grissom'll here in a bit, he had something he had to do," Sara replied, stepping past Sofia and under the tape that blocked off a large part of the parking lot of The Starlight Gardens Motel. Sara immediately started investigating, her eyes taking in the scene. She noted the position of the body and its surroundings, theories already starting in her mind. She took several more steps toward the body and stopped, the hairs on the back of her neck standing up, making her glance around. She looked at Sofia, who had been talking to an officer and then back toward the hotel, shaking off the feeling.

"The vic is Robert McAllan. Aged 34, here on business. Widowed, no kids. We're trying to find his closest family. He was staying in room 306, had the room rented for two weeks. We already have it taped off, ready for you to process. David will be here in about an hour. Traffics backed up on the Strip apparently." Sofia rattled all of this information off with the ease of a detective that had been doing this forever. It was hard to believe that she could switch between scientific jargon and the language of a seasoned detective in the span of a year, but did it she did.

"Okay, thanks," Sara responded, kneeling down to take a closer look at the body, knowing she couldn't touch it, not until the coroner got there. She noticed the gunshot wound in the middle of the victims back. The shape and size of it led her to believe that it was an exit wound, probably from a large caliber weapon. Sara kept herself busy until David got there by looking around the body, gathering things that may or may not have been evidence.

After about thirty minutes, Sara stood up and stretched, the muscles in her back protesting and the bones crackling from having been bent over for a long period of time. As she brought her arms back down to her sides, shots rang out and she felt a searing heat radiating from her left shoulder. Sara was dazed, didn't know what was happening and was shocked to find she was falling to the ground. Her elbows hit the asphalt first, and she knew that they were going to be bruised from the impact. The shots had stopped and police officers were running around trying to find the shooter, Sara could see them out of the corner of her eyes. She could hear yelling, most of it coming from Sofia, and she smiled at the young detectives words.

"I want you to find me that damned shooter and call a fucking ambulance right fucking NOW!" Sofia ran over to Sara, in hopes that she could move her out of the range of more potential gunfire, but knowing in the back of her mind that the shooter was probably long gone by now, and by the number of bullets that had flown through the air, he was out of ammo also. _It's a wonder no one else got hurt_, Sofia thought. And with that thought she looked down at the brunette who lay motionless on the black asphalt. Her brown eyes were open, and for one horrible moment, Sofia thought Sara was dead, and the thought brought surprising tears to her eyes. And then Sara moaned and Sofia let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding.

Sara blinked and looked up at the night sky, trying in vain to count the stars, knowing her efforts were futile, but she was trying to do anything possible to keep her mind off of the pain shooting from her shoulder down to her toes. Her whole body ached, which was strange because it was only her shoulder that really hurt. Hurt like a bitch actually. Sara shifted her gaze from the starless sky to the blonde sitting to her left, and who was at that moment divesting herself of her jacket. Sara wondered for a brief moment what she was doing before her question was answered by said jacket coming down on her wounded shoulder. She let out a hiss of pain and Sofia muttered a swift apology.

"Sara, I'm sorry, but I have to apply pressure or you'll bleed out. I've had an ambulance called so it should be here soon. Just hold on okay, don't go to sleep," Sofia said softly, pressing her jacket to Sara's shoulder, noting with a hint of sadness that blood was already soaking through it. _If she's losing blood this quickly, then she's not gonna last long. Where is that fucking ambulance? _Sofia thought to herself. _I've got to keep her awake._ As she finished her thought, a young police officer came up to her, out of breath.

"We got him Detective. He was headed south on Maple on foot. He tossed the gun somewhere. We're gonna wait for a CSI before we try and find it. The perps on his way to the station as we speak. How's she doing?" the young officer asked, kneeling on Sara's other side. He took her hand in his, startled by its coldness.

"She's fading fast. Any word on the bus?" Sofia asked looking down at Sara's face, noticing the light sheen of sweat coating her forehead. Sofia was worried.

"_She_ is right here and _she_ can hear you talking about _her_," Sara said, breathlessly. She shot a glare at Sofia before glancing at the man holding her free hand. "I don't know you," she said, not trying to move her hand from his grasp.

The young man laughed before replying. "No you don't. My name is Michael Sharpton. Did you hear what I said about the perp being caught Miss Sidle? What do you think about that?" He was doing his best to keep her from slipping into unconsciousness.

"Yeah I heard. I was shot in the shoulder, not the ears." Sara paused and took a breath. "Thank you."

Both Sofia and Michael laughed at Sara's reply, and Sofia pressed harder on Sara's shoulder. Sara closed her eyes at the pain and Michael and Sofia looked at each other, panic in each of their eyes. "Sara!" Sofia yelled. "Sara you have to stay awake, okay? Stay with us!"

Sara's eyed popped open at the shout of her name and she smiled weakly. "I'm awake, okay? When did you become so bossy? I don't remember you being this bossy."

"That's good Sara, keep talking. Talk to me, tell me about yourself." This time it wasn't Sofia who was trying to keep Sara awake, it was Michael. Sara shot him a grateful look before answering.

"You know you don't have to do this. You can go back to work. The ambulance will be here soon," Sara said, trying to dislodge her hand from his.

"And miss out on holding a beautiful woman's hand? I don't think so. You think I'm crazy?" Michael asked, grabbing her hand back.

"I think your crazy for sitting here holding my hand. You don't even know me." Sara smiled weakly up at him.

"You think that's stopped me before?" Michael shot her a smile back.

"So you do this often then? Keep women from remembering the bullet hole in their shoulder?" Sara's voice was getting weaker.

"Well every once in a while. You know how it goes. Fight crime during the day, save damsels in distress at night."

All three of them laughed at this before Sara felt herself slipping away. She called out softly for Sofia. Sofia leaned her head towards Sara's, trying to hear her words over the wail of the approaching sirens. "Tell them- tell them I love them." Sara's eyes closed slightly, her breathing slowing down considerably. Her grip on Michaels hand relaxed and both he and Sofia shot each other panicked looks.

"No Sara, I will not! You can tell them yourself, okay? You just gotta stay awake, you understand me? Stay with me Sara," Sofia said to her. "Look Sara, the ambulance is here. And about bloody time too. Look Sara you gotta stay awake. Stay awake for the paramedics, okay? Come on Sara. What am I gonna tell Grissom? He's gonna pissed that you didn't at least stay awake for the paramedics. Come on stay with me Sara." Sofia's voice became more and more frantic as she watched Sara slip into unconsciousness. The paramedics came running up behind her and she was pushed behind them as they worked on Sara. Michael, who had also been pushed out of the way, came to stand next to her. They stood and watched as Sara was lifted on to a stretcher and rolled to the waiting ambulance. They followed her to the open doors and watched as the paramedics gently lifted the stretcher carrying Sara in to the bay.

"Does somebody wanna ride with her? Hurry, she ain't got much time?" one of the paramedics asked.

Sofia looked at Michael and silently gave him approval. "Go ahead," she said quietly. "I'm gonna stay here and make some calls."

Michael nodded his head and jumped into the waiting ambulance. He grabbed one of Sara's hands and that was the last thing that Sofia saw. The ambulance pulled away and as it exited the parking lot, its lights and sirens started up, jarring Sofia out of her trance. She walked over to her car and grabbed her cell phone out of the passenger seat. She pressed the first numbers that came into her head, vaguely aware that her hands were covered in Sara's blood. She held the phone up to her ear and listened to the monotonous ringing. She glanced at her dash, noting the time. It had only been about fifteen minutes since this whole fiasco had started. She heard a gruff voice answer on the other end of the line. "Brass."

Sofia's voice cracked as she answered the captain. "Brass. We've had a situation here. It's Sara. You should get to Desert Palms soon. Oh, and call Grissom. We're gonna need a bigger crew out here to collect evidence." She hung up with a snap of her phone and leaned against the car's hood. She glanced to her left as a company Tahoe pulled up next to the tape. _Oh great_, she thought, before taking a step toward Grissom.

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To be continued…

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"**How could this happen to me  
I made my mistakes  
I've got no where to run  
The night goes on  
As I'm fading away  
I'm sick of this life  
I just wanna scream  
How could this happen to me."**

**-Simple Plan "Untitled"**

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**A/N:** Please review. This is the first story I have written in over a year I believe it was. I hope that I did the whole 'Sara getting hurt' subject justice. I have seen so many good stories out there involving this storyline and I want to make sure that y'all like this one just as much as those stories. I purposely had Sofia be there when Sara was shot jus because I haven't seen any stories where Sofia is the one comforting Sara. I in no way intend to make this slash so don't worry. I'm a diehard G/S shipper over here. Well I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it, even at 2:30 in the morning. And remember, reviews do a body good. And stay tuned for Chapter 2! 


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